The Seventh Letter and the Cratylus

 

In the Seventh Letter Plato says that from his early days he wanted to engage in politics, in Athens. He abandoned this desire during the reign of the Thirty, after they attempted to involve Socrates in their nefarious activities (e0dusxe/rana/ te kai\ e0mauto\n e0panh/gagon a0po tw~n to/te kakw~n ‘I was indignant and withdrew myself from those evils’, 325a4-5). But after the restoration of democracy, he began again (pa/lin de/), though less urgently (bradu/teron me/n), to be moved by a desire to engage in political affairs (ei3lken de/ me o3mwj h9 peri\ to\ pra/ttein ta\ koina\ kai\ politika\ e0piqumi/a, 325a7-b1).

Socrates’ trial, imprisonment, and death in the hands of democrats, seriously affected Plato’s desire to do politics: ‘Consequently (w#ste me/), although at first (to\ prw~ton) I was filled with an ardent desire (pollh=j mesto\n o1nta o9rmh=j) to engage in public affairs (e0pi\ to\ pra/ttein ta\ koina/), when I considered all this (ble/ponta ei0j tau=ta) and saw how things were shifting about anyhow in all directions (kai\ fero/mena o9rw~nta pa/nth| pa/ntwj), I finally became dizzy (teleutw~nta i0liggia=n); but I continued to consider (kai\ tou= me\n skopei=n mh\ a0posth=nai) by what means some betterment could be brought about (mh/ pote a1meinon a2n gi/gnoito) in these matters (peri/ te au0ta\ tau=ta) and in the government as a whole (kai\ dh\ kai\ peri\ th\n pa=san politei/an), and as regards political action I kept constantly waiting for an opportune moment (tou= de\ pra/ttein au] perimenei=n a0ei\ kairou/j).’ (325d6-326a2)

All this is rather vague, but perhaps we can make it more definite, if we consider dialogues that Plato wrote in those days, beginning with the Cratylus. For there are reasons to suppose that Cratylus was the first dialogue that Plato wrote after he returned to Athens from Megara, where he and other close friends of Socrates took refuge after the death of Socrates, ‘alarmed as they were at the cruelty of the tyrants’ (dei/santaj th\n w)mo/thta tw~n tura/nnwn, Diog. Laert. II. 106). Diogenes Laertius says that ‘when Socrates was gone (e0kei/nou d’ a0pelqo/ntoj), Plato turned his attention to Cratylus the Heraclitean (prosei=xe Kratu/lw| te tw~| H(rakleitei/w|), and to Hermogenes (kai\ E((rmoge/nei) who professed the philosophy of Parmenides (tw~| ta\ Parmeni/dou filosofou/nti)’ (III. 6).

In my view, Plato’s intention to write the Cratylus was the reason for his turning the attention to Cratylus and Hermogenes after his return to Athens from Megara, and the Cratylus is the result of Plato’s cooperation with the two.